and was usually sung to the harp at Christmas dinners and brideales, as we learn from Puttenham's Art of Poetry, 4to. 1589.
This ancient romance is not wholly lost. An imperfect copy in black letter, "Imprynted at London——for Wylliam Copland," in 34 sheets 4to. without date, is still preserved among Mr. Garrick's collection of old plays. As a specimen of the poetry of this antique rhymer, take his description of the dragon mentioned in v. 105 of the following ballad:—
"——A messenger came to the king.
Syr king, he sayd, lysten me now,
For bad tydinges I bring you,
In Northumberlande there is no man,
But that they be slayne everychone:
For there dare no man route,
By twenty myle rounde aboute,
For doubt of a fowle dragon,
That sleath men and beastes downe.
He is blacke as any cole,
Rugged as a rough fole;
His bodye from the navill upwarde
No man may it pierce it is so harde;
His neck is great as any summere;
He renneth as swifte as any distrere;
Pawes he hath as a lyon:
All that he toucheth he sleath dead downe.
Great winges he hath to flight,
That is no man that bare him might.
There may no man fight him agayne,
But that he sleath him certayne:
For a fowler beast then is he,
Ywis of none never heard ye."
Sir William Dugdale is of opinion that the story of Guy is not wholly apocryphal, tho' he acknowledges the monks have sounded out his praises too hyperbolically. In particular, he gives the duel fought with the Danish champion as a real historical truth, and fixes the date of it in the year 926, Ætat. Guy, 67. See his Warwickshire.
The following is written upon the same plan as ballad v. book i., but which is the original and which the copy cannot be decided. This song is ancient, as may be inferred from the idiom preserved in the margin, v. 94, 102: and was once popular, as appears from Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, act 2, sc. ult.
It is here published from an ancient MS. copy in the editor's old folio volume, collated with two printed ones, one of which is in black letter in the Pepys collection.
[Guy was one of the most popular of the heroes of romance, and the Folio MS. contains three pieces upon his history, viz., the two printed here and Guy and Colbrand.
The original of the present ballad in the Folio MS., entitled Guy and Phillis (ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. p. 201), is a mere fragment beginning with verse 89. Percy tore out certain leaves to send to the printer, and in consequence the whole of King Estmere and the beginning of this ballad are lost. Alterations have been made in nearly every verse by the help of the printed copies. Guy and Phillis was entered on the Stationers' books, 5th January, 1591-2.